Professor believes area is tolerant but highly conservative

Though they both teach at West Texas A&M University - Teven is assistant professor of art, communication and theater while Dudt is chairwoman of Shakespeare studies - they differ in their viewpoints about tolerance and pluralism in the Panhandle.

They, along with other area residents, were asked their views after Rabbi A. James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee, recently wrote in a column that cultural and religious diversity is now a norm in American society.

Rudin wrote, "Since the Sept. 11 attacks, we have been exposed to TV spots featuring a host of people all uttering the same four words, 'I am an American.' Their accents, clothing and religious/ethnic identities convey a single message: Extraordinary demographic diversity is now a fact of life in the United States."

Teven, an Illinois native who previously taught at Northwest Missouri State University, has been at WT two years and said he has enjoyed his time and the people here, as has his wife, Maria, who's working on her master's degree at WT.

"I would say (the area) is tolerant, but it's highly conservative," Jason Teven said. He said the "sheer number" of churches is indicative of the community's conservative bent.

Teven said WT is more multicultural than Northwest, where 90-95 percent of the students are white. According to WT records, the ethnic breakdown among its top three groups is 80 percent white, 12 percent Hispanic and 3 percent for both black and international students.

Dudt, a Texas A&M Regent's Professor of English who came to this country from Allahabad, India, said she finds the Panhandle to be "fairly insulated" from the rest of the world. She doesn't think the area embraces pluralism.

"I think on an individual basis people are warm and welcoming," she said, however.

Dudt said she wishes the area had more cultural offerings, and she often goes out of town and the country to enjoy the arts.

A former Plainview resident, Mandy Williams owns a small business in Canyon, but her two elementary-age children attend Carver Academy in Amarillo because of the school's pluralism.

"I think it's a wonderful place to live," said Williams, who owns The Cake Company in Canyon. "Being from Plainview, I think small towns are more friendly. It's more personable, I guess you could say."

Her children attend Carver Academy in Amarillo, however, because she wanted them to meet children from other racial backgrounds because "the whole world isn't white." She said she wants them to be ready for those real-world realities.

April Cates, a candle-maker and Amarillo native, said there's no place she'd rather live than Amarillo, although she said the area doesn't offer enough for teen-agers to do.

Cates attends River Road Fellowship and said she thinks the area is tolerant. Her own tolerance extends to her Christian brethren. She said it does not matter what someone's denomination is as long as they believe in the Bible.

"We're going to come together in heaven, anyway," she said.

Brian Hesse said the area offers more culture than he anticipated when he moved here last year but expressed concern about how people of minority faiths (Muslims and Buddhists, for example) might find their niche here. He gives Amarillo high marks overall.

"People seem to be a little more traditional here, a little more family-based," said Hesse, assistant pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church and a Minnesota native, comparing Amarillo to his last home in St. Louis. "You still run into your blended families, though."

Amarillo Police Department officer Mussyal (he prefers not to use his first name) converted to Islam in deference to a deathbed promise to his grandfather and said he's not interested in converting to any other religion.

An Oklahoma native who grew up there and in this area, Mussyal talked about his experiences of being a Muslim in Amarillo in a Chicago Tribune article last fall.

His forebears came to America from Turkey, and his faith is important to him, he said. Although he has had people approach him and ask to share the Gospel, "I'm a Muslim and I will die a Muslim," Mussyal said.

Although he said he had been treated well by his colleagues, he also said there's still "a little work to be done" with tolerance in the Panhandle, especially regarding the way people view a minority religion such as Islam.

"No matter where life takes me, I'll go to my grave saying the Texas Panhandle people are the best I've ever known," said Trisha Capansky, a Northeast transplant who moved here two years ago. "They say what they think, not in a rude way, but an honest one. Don't ask them their opinion if you don't want to hear the truth."

Capansky, who works for the city of Amarillo, said she was intrigued with the culture after she read stories about Amarillo during the Oprah Winfrey-Texas cattlemen trial in 1998. Capansky, a Jew, said she has experienced no mistreatment or discrimination here.

"But I have pocketed a great many stories by being from a minority religion and ethnicity, such as the time I was looking for Hanukkah candles for my menorah and a fellow thought I wanted manure candles," Capansky said. "He questioned if there was such a thing and why I'd want to light manure."